Some famous Shankly quotes

“For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me then come out fighting on the other side.”

On one of Liverpools European trips, he was filling in the hotel registration form where he wrote Football for occupation and Anfield for the address.

“Sir, said the receptionist, you need to fill in where you live. “Lady”, he replied, “in Liverpool there is only one address that matters and that is where I live.”

“Of course I didn’t take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present. It was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves.”

“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

“If a player is not interfering with play or seeking to gain an advantage, then he should be.”

“If Everton were playing at the bottom of the garden, I’d pull the curtains.”

To Tommy Smith, who tried to explain that his bandaged knee was injured:

“Take that bandage off. And what do you mean about YOUR knee? It’s Liverpool’s knee!”

To the journalist suggesting Liverpool were in difficulties:

“Ay, here we are with problems at the top of the league.”

To a translator, when being surrounded by gesticulating Italian journalists:

“Just tell them I completely disagree with everything they say!”

About the “This is Anfield” plaque:

“It’s there to remind our lads who they’re playing for, and to remind the opposition who they’re playing against.”

To Alan Ball, who’d just signed for Everton:

“Don’t worry, Alan. At least you’ll be able to play close to a great team!”

At Dixie Dean’s funeral:

“I know this is a sad occasion but I think that Dixie would be amazed to know that even in death he could draw a bigger crowd than Everton can on a Saturday Afternoon.”

After beating Everton in the ’71 cup semi:

“Sickness would not have kept me away from this one. If I’d been dead, I would have had them bring the casket to the ground, prop it up in the stands and cut a hole in the lid.”

“Although I’m a Scot, I’d be proud to be called a Scouser.”

“A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are. In my time at Liverpool we always said we had the best two teams on Merseyside, Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves.”

“If you are first you are first. If you are second, you are nothing.”

Speaking to a very nervous looking Alec Lindsay on his debut:

“When you get the ball, I want you to beat a couple of men and smash the ball into the net, just the same way you used to at Bury. Bemused Lindsay said: But Boss that wasn’t me it was Bobby Kerr. Shankly turned to Bob Paisley and said: Christ Bob, we’ve signed the wrong player.”

“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game.”

To a reporter in the 60’s:

“Yes, Roger Hunt misses a few, but he gets in the right place to miss them.”

After signing Ron Yeats:

“With him in defence, we could play Arthur Askey in goal.”

After a hard fought 1-1 draw:

“The best side drew.”

After a 0-0 draw at Anfield:

“What can you do, playing against 11 goalposts?”

“Liverpool was made for me and I was made for Liverpool.”

“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.”

“At a football club, there’s a holy trinity – the players, the manager and the supporters. Directors don’t come into it. They are only there to sign the cheques.”

To Tommy Smith:

“You son, you could start a riot in a graveyard.”

On the day he signed Ian St John:

“Son, you’ll do well here as long as you remember two things. Don’t over-eat and don’t lose your accent.”

On leaving Liverpool:

“It was the most difficult thing in the world, when I went to tell the chairman. It was like walking to the electric chair. That’s the way it felt.”

To Kevin Keegan:

“Just go out and drop a few hand-grenades all over the place, son.”

About Brian Clough:

“He’s worse than the rain in Manchester. At least the rain in Manchester stops occasionally.”

When told he had never experienced playing in a derby:

“Nonsense! I’ve kicked every ball, headed out every cross. I once scored a hat-trick; One was lucky, but the others were great goals.”

Talking to a Liverpool trainee:

“The problem with you, son, is that all your brains are in your head”

About Ian Callaghan:

“He typifies everything that is good in football, and he has never changed. You could stake your life on Ian.”

About Ian St.John:

“He’s not just the best centre-forward in the British Isles, but the only one.”

Taken from Bill Shanklys autobiography…it sums the man up:

Above all, I would like to be remembered as a man who was selfless, who strove and worried so that others could share the glory, and who built up a family of people who could hold their heads up high and say